When dad doesn’t recognise his own kids ...

Would you recognise your children? Photo: David Hurst

The other week, however, it was our children’s turn to act the clown – and they did it in style.

As part of a celebration of friendship, schools throughout the area put on a variety of different performances at the theatre.

All the youngsters put on a spectacular show and displayed amazing talents including energetic dancing and enthusiastic singing while wearing fantastic costumes.

While every act was a joy to watch, I might be a teeny bit biased in thinking our children’s school stole the show with their wonderful clown routine with perfectly choreographed dancing, singing and acrobatics to Tears of A Clown, Send In The Clowns and 99 Red Balloons.

Some of the pupils put on a dazzling display of back flips and cartwheels, Hubby commented with pride: “Cameron’s quite good at cartwheels isn’t he?”

I hadn’t actually realised he had been one of the children doing the acrobatics and felt a pang that I was a bad mother for not witnessing my son’s skills and made sure I watched like a hawk so I wouldn’t miss anything else.

However, everything became clear when all the children took to the stage for the grand finale and Hubby remarked: “Cameron looks really short in comparison to the other children. You only realise when they’re all stood next to each other.”

Bemused, I looked at the stage and thought: “He doesn’t look that small!” as Cameron was stood alongside friends who were all a similar height to him.

Following Hubby’s line of vision, the penny suddenly dropped – he wasn’t looking at Cameron but the wrong child!

After confirming with Cameron later that he hadn’t done any cartwheels or backflips, it dawned on me Hubby had been watching the wrong boy throughout the show!

What a bad dad! I mean, I know they had clown paint on, but fancy not recognising your own flesh and blood! I think I’ll report him to the Royal Society for Cruel Fathers or some such organisation.

I took great delight in praising our children afterwards telling them: “You were amazing. Daddy thought so too… however, he was watching the wrong children!”